It has been almost a month since I last blogged. Major reason being too lazy to blog and even write my own personal diary! Have been very focused on training for my half marathon the past 2 weeks. It was on 4th Dec and it's over already... Having clocked a better time than last year of 2hour 7min 19sec. It was an improvement of about 4 minutes plus from last year's timing of 2 hour 11min++. I was hoping to sub 2hour 5min. But well, there's room for improvement next year then! :)
5th Dec : I woke up at 420am, after only getting about 5hour+ sleep only as I could not get to bed until 11pm the night before! Met YL downstairs at 5am and Dad fetched us there to City Hall area. Thanks to my dear Daddy who made the detour to stop his taxi-driving for the hour and fetch me to the venue. Otherwise, I would have to catch the bus from the stadium at an earlier hour!
We arrived at City Hall at about 5.30am, way ahead of the starting time of 6.30am. I had to go to the loo and we queued up for the cubicle toilet. Argh. Disgusting. There was no water to flush and it was dark fortunately. I hate it.
After the toilet relief, we went ahead to deposit our bags and I heard someone call my name when I was searching my bag for something. It was Norman and SC! Ah ha! So my old friend of 17 years was running in her virgin half marathon as well! :) Norm was telling me that he actually told SC to call me the night before. He?s doing the full marathon.
Norm went ahead to the starting line as the full started at 6.We chit chatted and lingered around, soaking in the atmosphere. The sky was not bright yet! But what a vibrant air it beheld! For there was loud music, emcees on the microphones and lotsa runners out there thronging the bridge of Esplanade, waiting to start their run. Great feeling.
We proceeded to the starting line at 6.10am, after the full marathoners were flagged off. I felt thirsty and wanted to look for a bottle of water. I turned around and someone tapped on my shoulder. It was Meixuan! What a coincidence! I had wanted to email her earlier to ask if she was participating in the run this year as a runner officially signed up. (She gate crashed last year.) I got my answer. She was doing the half and several of her friends were doing the full. She's a nurse I got to know through the BCLS course in SGH and she's working at Jurong Polyclinic now. An ex-canoeist who's very fit and so into adventure racing nowadays. She's my model of inspiration!
I managed to hunt down the tentage where they handed out bottles of water before the run. All 4 of us shared a bottle.
It was 6.25am when they sounded the horn. Off we went. Meixuan was off at the front and I went my usual speed, constantly reminding myself to go in a comfortable manner. To watch my pace so that I would not be going too fast at the beginning. I need to relax my shoulders and straighten my arms to let the blood flow as well.
I ran ahead of SC and YL and we had our 'OTOT'(own time, own target) to meet. I wondered if I should actually drink the 100plus provided along the way or not, after talking to Philip the day before about rehydration and he not believing that I can do the entire run without any water at all.
About 20minutes into my run, which means 50min into the marathoners' times, the top Kenyan runners ran past us...they would be approaching their 21km soon. Kaoz. Btw, the top 3 male runners clocked 2hour 15min 55 sec, 2hr 15min 58s and 2hr 16m 34s respectively! *Kowtow to them*
About 4-5km into my run, Balasing ran past me and he tapped on my shoulder. I said 'Jiayou' to him, the usual thing we always used to do during those Judo days. He's a runner from the sgrunners' forum. Geez... When I read his blog, he wrote that I 'shrieked'. Was I really that loud? :p Anyway, earlier in the morning when I saw Meixuan, I shouted as well and she was very shocked and went 'Shhhh...' Haha... They do not know me very well obviously! :p
There was 100plus water points at every 6km mark. At the 2nd such point, I decided to just take one cup and ran slower in order to drink it down. I took about 5 sips before I threw the cup away. The water supply this year came in 'Ice Mountain' water bottles and it was so WASTEFUL and ENVIRONMENTALLY UNFRIENDLY!!! It was simply a huge waste since many people would just take a sip or 2 and throw the entire bottle away!!! And I have heard of people tripping over the bottles or bottle caps! No one is going to hold on to the bottle for the rest of their runs! Why can?t they just pour the water into paper cups instead!?!?
After having that half cup of 100plus, I ran the rest of my run with a stitch in my abdomen. Argh. It was bearable since it did not concentrate in just one spot but spread across the entire abdomen. I just had to breathe properly and control my pacing. Not to step down too hard. Aiye.
There were times at the beginning of the run when I would keep looking to the other lane to see the oncoming runners in case I spotted any familiar faces. I did see TLR. Then when I was 1/3 into the run, I decided to concentrate on my run and simply focused on the route ahead of me instead of darting my eyes to the right lane. I had to conserve energy for the entire run and to focus on my breathing and posture and thinking as well. Looking at the other lane would only serve to distract me. :p
Hence, it was really coincidental that I spotted Xianru(XR) on the other lane around Marina Bay area. I happened to look over at the other side that time and spotted a guy running with his girlfriend. Then I looked at the girl and it turned out to be XR! I shouted, 'Xianru, jiayou!' She turned back to see me and smiled, though I was already a distance away. *Fate*
It's her virgin half marathon also, and I understood that she only took up long distance running as recent as August? Kudos to her for her courage to take part in a 21km as her 1st event. :)
21,000 runners this year. 40% increase from last year. The increase was apparent. With the crowds. And of course some restful strollers blocking your way. *Distaste*
Beautiful sunrise over the horizon at Marina South!!! Coincided with the passing of a ship! It was almost surreal. Misty and cool and with the fumes coming out from the ship's chimney... it looked too dreamlike to be real. Yet it was. Meixuan and I were talking about how beautiful it was at that moment, but sadly, I noticed that the runners around me did not even turn to look in the direction of the rising sun. Too glaring? I do not find so. These are the little things in Life which u can never capture on film but are often the most beautiful which chances upon u when u least take note. Once gone, that moment will never be able to be replicated. I have experienced many of such moments during my runs. Somehow, they just keep u going and signals that there' always Hope ahead if u dare surge forward.
Ships. Sunrise. Fumes. Chimneys. Sea. How I wish to travel. How I wish to work on a ship one day. *Reminiscent*
There were far too many people at the stretch from Esplanade to Kallang and back. It was about 15-16 km then and many people were walking! I had to run in a criss cross manner in between people and it irked me to do so, wasting time and energy. At one point, I ran onto the pavement where there were nobody and it was a logn stretch ahead. I sped up. I love long stretches when I'm in the mood. I would have the tendency to speed up and there I was, running faster than earlier and surprised at my energy level at that point.
Nearing 16km, or somewhere around there, just before the U-turn at Kallang Riverside Park bridge, I saw Balasing and shouted 'jiayou' to him again while running past. I found out later on that his ankle was giving him problem. Hence he slowed down... I was surging forward with a renewed sense of energy even though the sun was out. How I wished he could have run well too!
Sun. Hot day. It was relatively cloudless. So much for the prediction of rain before the run by SC and YL. Haha. The few days before, it has been raining cats and dogs most of the time. Think the heat surprised many people. I felt quite okay. The heat did not get to me that much. *Lucky* So much for running under shade at 9-11 on Sunday mornings...
Last stretch up the Esplanade Bridge. I was 'cheated' here last year into thinking that it was the end at the end of the bridge! Argh. Not fooled this time! Conserved my energy and I am still amazed by my sprint for the last 100m of the run. I felt pain in my right knee and ankle though. Probably some old injury that resurfaced since I really gave my 101% for this last stretch. Which goes to show that I never over-exert myself during my runs, for they do not hurt during those trainings!
Well, well, I felt good at the end of the run. Although I did not manage to sub 2hour 5 min, I know I have done my best. Especially with me not feeling well 2 weeks before the run after going on night shift and my body having to readjust to the different timings of work everyday. It was raining heavily many days in the earlier 2weeks as well. The weather did affect my training sometimes, but I managed to stick to it and got through the entire 'regime' and came out to be an even more disciplined person.
I grabbed a can of cold 100PLUS after the run. I was so glad they were giving them out to runners. The heat was only going to get worse. I hopped around, waiting to cool down and I met Meixuan. I found out later that she finished at a few seconds later than me. We then chatted under the shade while stretching and I met Meteor(Susan) from sgrunners forum. It's her virgin half marathon and she clocked 2hour 6mins+! Whoa oh! Way to go, girl! I have met her at the carbo loading session the day before at Suntec and she's a friendly lady. :)
I also met SuperBoy(from sgrunners) who told me that he had to run to the toilet several times during the run! That?s terrible. Oh man... It would be the worst thing to happen to me. :p Meixuan and I then went on to return our race chip and got our finisher's medal. We queued up for our bags which took 1hour 45 min in the end! Argh! Luckily I had her to accompany me, and we talked the whole time. She had to go get drinks for us again after 1 hours of waiting in the sun. It was horrible. The entire bag collection was simply a screw-up.
Towards the end, I met Sing Cheer at the queue too. We had to hold up our numbers for the volunteers to see. Some lady was screaming out numbers tagged to guess what? Shoe bags. And she was not clearing the other bags! People from other queues got frustrated and they even helped to chorus in unison every number that the bag was brought out. Eventually, people went in to look for the bags themselves. That's what I did too and I found Meixuan's bag, then Sing Cheer's and my bag within 3 minutes! Oh man. It's because we recognized our own bags and need not look for a pathetic number tagged to the bag! Argh. Wasted so much time that I could run another half marathon! :p
After getting our bags, I came out and saw YL in the queue. I barged in and found her bag within a minute. We were on our way to get changed. Meixuan made her way to the finishing line to wait and cheer for her friends while SC went to wait for Norm to come in. YL and I made our way to her office to wash up.
I met DO(from sgrunners) after getting my bag out. He bought ice cream for BrokenRunner's(sgrunners) children. He told me that they would gather for a group photo at the end of the marathon. Oops. I did not turn up in the end.
I was famished! Have not felt so hungry in a long while! :p We decided on Kenny Rogers in the end for lunch. Great. What a satisfying carbo reload for my system. Guess what we did for the next 3 hours? We went shopping at Carrefour. I wanted to check out their chocolates. I was amazed to find out they had so many different products under their house brands! :p And the stuff underwent QC, so they are of a certain quality. I was having loadsa fun browsing through all the imported stuff and deciphering the words on the labels. FUN! I bought quite a number of items in the end!
Balasing sms me to ask how was my run. The sgrunners did gather at the end and some of them went for lunch. What coincidenece to meet Bee at Carrefour! Her mum told her to get something and she was there shopping. I had some updates from her regarding the marathoners. Great support. It's a good thing that people with a common interest can bond so well.
We were tired by the end of the shopping. I wanted my ice cream!!! We opted for New Zealand ice cream in the end as we could sit down in the food court to eat it. 'Ben's and Jerry's' was full! They should have a bigger outlet with more tables and chairs man.
Home sweet home at almost 7pm. Late. I thought I could get home earlier to rest and blog. Haha. Hence the delay in this entry... Simply too lazy to write lately...
To conclude, this year's run was better than last year, although I wonder if I should have taken that cup of 100PLUS after all. I still don't feel ready to do a marathon although I know I have the ability to do it. I love running even more now. Lalalala... Every run nowadays is a chance to get away from the daily mundanes of Life. I no longer have to look at my watch to see how far I have run. That placed a limitation on me in the past. Now, I simply run as far as I wish and as long as my legs can take me.
My feet are itching to run another event, but it seems like it is going to be a disappointing 2 months ahead with no major events to train for, except for the biathlon in March. Oh man... It's 2006 soon. Time flies. I have so much undone business in 2005.
"I always loved running... it was something you could do by yourself, and under your own power. You could go in any direction, fast or slow as you wanted, fighting the wind if you felt like it, seeking out new sights just on the strength of your feet and the courage of your lungs." ~Jesse Owens
